par Philip Pullella
ABOARD THE POPE’S PLANE, July 30 (Reuters) – Pope Francis said on Saturday that his advanced age and walking difficulties were leading him into a new, slower phase of his pontificate and repeated that he would be prepared to resign a day if serious health problems prevented him from leading the church.
“I don’t think I can continue to travel at the same pace as before,” he told reporters on the plane taking him back to Rome after a week-long trip to Canada.
Pope Francis, 85, has used a wheelchair, cane or walker in recent months due to pain in his knee caused by a fracture and an inflamed ligament.
He walked with a cane to the aft cabin where journalists travel but sat down in a wheelchair, for the first time in 37 international trips since he was elected pope in 2013, for the traditional press conference after-trip 45 minutes.
“I think at my age and with this limitation, I have to save myself a bit to be able to serve the church, or decide to retire,” he said.
The pace of travel to Canada, centered on his apologies for the church’s role in residential schools intended to assimilate Indigenous children, has been slower than in the past, with typically only two events a day and long rest periods. .
Franois said he preferred not to have knee surgery because he didn’t want to suffer again the long-term negative side effects of the anesthesia he suffered after a bowel operation a year ago.
“But I will try to continue traveling in order to be close to people, because it is a way of serving,” he said.
He said he would first go to the places he has already promised to visit, such as South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lebanon and possibly Kazakhstan, before deciding on his future trips. .
“THE DOOR IS OPEN”
“I have all the good will but we’ll have to see what the leg says,” he said.
In an interview with Reuters this month, Franois said he had no plans to resign soon. He has often said, however, that he could follow the example of Pope Benedict, who in 2013 became the first pope in 600 years to step down rather than rule for life.
“This, in all honesty, is not a disaster. There may be a change of pope, there is no problem with that,” he said.
“The door is open. It’s one of the normal options. Until today I haven’t used this door. I didn’t think it was necessary to think about this possibility but that doesn’t mean that ‘the day after tomorrow I don’t start thinking about it.’
“This trip was a bit of a test. It’s true that I can’t do trips in these conditions. Maybe we need to change my style, do fewer trips, do the trips I promised to do, reorganize things. But it’s the Lord who will decide. The door is open,” Pope Francis also said. (French version Benjamin Mallet)
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